Custer: Book Third Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Custer: Book Third Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
	-
As in the long dead days marauding hosts	B
Of Indians came from far Siberian coasts	B
And drove the peaceful Aztecs from their grounds	C
Despoiled their homes but left their tell tale mounds	C
So has the white man with the Indians done	D
Now with their backs against the setting sun	D
The remnants of a dying nation stand	E
And view the lost domain once their beloved land	E
	-
II	A
	-
Upon the vast Atlantic's leagues of shore	F
The happy red man's tent is seen no more	F
And from the deep blue lakes which mirror heaven	D
His bounding bark canoe was long since driven	D
The mighty woods those temples where his God	G
Spoke to his soul are leveled to the sod	G
And in their place tall church spires point above	H
While priests proclaim the law of Christ the King of Love	H
	-
III	A
	-
The avaricious and encroaching rail	I
Seized the wide fields which knew the Indians' trail	I
Back to the reservations in the West	J
The native owners of the land were pressed	J
And selfish cities harbingers of want	K
Shut from their vision each accustomed haunt	L
Yet hungry Progress never satisfied	M
Gazed on the western plains and gazing longed and sighed	M
	-
IV	H
	-
As some strange bullock in a pasture field	N
Compels the herds to fear him and to yield	N
The juicy grass plots and the cooling shade	O
Until despite their greater strength afraid	O
They huddle in some corner spot and cower	P
Before the monarch's all controlling power	P
So has the white man driven from its place	Q
By his aggressive greed Columbia's native race	Q
	-
V	H
	-
Yet when the bull pursues the herds at bay	R
Incensed they turn and dare dispute his sway	R
And so the Indians turned when men forgot	S
Their sacred word and trespassed on the spot	S
The lonely little spot of all their lands	T
The reservation of the peaceful bands	T
But lust for gold all conscience kills in man	U
'Gold in the Black Hills gold ' the cry arose and ran	U
	-
VI	H
	-
From lip to lip as flames from tree to tree	H
Leap till the forest is one fiery sea	H
And through the country surged that hot unrest	J
Which thirst for riches wakens in the breast	J
In mighty throngs the fortune hunters came	V
Despoiled the red man's lands and slew his game	V
Broke solemn treaties and defied the law	W
And all these ruthless acts the Nation knew and saw	W
	-
VII	H
	-
Man is the only animal that kills	X
Just for the wanton love of slaughter spills	X
The blood of lesser things to see it flow	Y
Lures like a friend to murder like a foe	Y
The trusting bird and beast and coward like	Z
Deals covert blows he dare not boldly strike	Z
The brutes have finer souls and only slay	R
When torn by hunger's pangs or when to fear a prey	R
	-
VIII	Y
	-
The pale faced hunter insolent and bold	A2
Pursued the bison while he sought for gold	A2
And on the hungry red man's own domains	B2
He left the rotting and unused remains	B2
To foul with sickening stench each passing wind	C2
And rouse the demon in the savage mind	C2
Save in the heart where virtues dominate	D2
Injustice always breeds its natural offspring hate	D2
	-
IX	B2
	-
The chieftain of the Sioux great Sitting Bull	E2
Mused o'er their wrongs and felt his heart swell full	E2
Of bitter vengeance Torn with hate's unrest	J
He called a council and his braves addressed	J
'From fair Wisconsin's shimmering lakes of blue	F2
Long years ago the white man drove the Sioux	F2
Made bold by conquest and inflamed by greed	G2
He still pursues our tribes and still our ranks recede	G2
	-
X	B2
	-
'Fair are the White Chief's promises and words	B2
But dark his deeds who robs us of our herds	B2
He talks of treaties asks the right to buy	H
Then takes by force not waiting our reply	H
He grants us lands for pastures and abodes	B2
To devastate them by his iron roads	B2
But now from happy Spirit Lands a friend	H2
Draws near the hunted Sioux to strengthen and defend	H2
	-
XI	B2
	-
'While walking in the fields I saw a star	I2
Unconsciously I followed it afar	I2
It led me on to valleys filled with light	J2
Where danced our noble chieftains slain in fight	J2
Black Kettle first of all that host I knew	F2
He whom the strong armed Custer foully slew	F2
And then a spirit took me by the hand	E
The Great Messiah King who comes to free the land	E
	-
XII	B2
	-
'Suns were his eyes a speaking tear his voice	B2
Whose rainbow sounds made listening hearts rejoice	B2
And thus he spake 'The red man's hour draws near	K2
When all his lost domains shall reappear	K2
The elk the deer the bounding antelope	L2
Shall here return to grace each grassy slope '	-
He waved his hand above the fields and lo	Y
Down through the valleys came a herd of buffalo	Y
	-
XIII	B2
	-
'The wondrous vision vanished but I knew	F2
That Sitting Bull must make the promise true	F2
Great Spirits plan what mortal man achieves	B2
The hand works magic when the heart believes	B2
Arouse ye braves let not the foe advance	B2
Arm for the battle and begin the dance	B2
The sacred dance in honor of our slain	M2
Who will return to earth ere many moons shall wane '	-
	-
XIV	Y
	-
Thus Sitting Bull the chief of wily knaves	B2
Worked on the superstitions of his braves	B2
Mixed truth with lies and stirred to mad unrest	J
The warlike instinct in each savage breast	J
A curious product of unhappy times	B2
The natural offspring of unnumbered crimes	B2
He used low cunning and dramatic arts	B2
To startle and surprise those crude untutored hearts	B2
	-
XV	Y
	-
Out from the lodges pour a motley throng	N2
Slow measures chanting of a dirge like song	N2
In one great circle dizzily they swing	O2
A squaw and chief alternate in the ring	O2
Coarse raven locks stream over robes of white	J2
Their deep set orbs emit a lurid light	J2
And as through pine trees moan the winds refrains	B2
So swells and dies away the ghostly graveyard strains	B2
	-
XVI	Y
	-
Like worded wine is music to the ear	P2
And long indulged makes mad the hearts that hear	P2
The dancers drunken with the monotone	Q2
Of oft repeated notes now shriek and groan	Q2
And pierce their ruddy flesh with sharpened spears	B2
Still more excited when the blood appears	B2
With warlike yells high in the air they bound	R2
Then in a deathlike trance fall prostrate on the ground	R2
	-
XVII	Y
	-
They wake to tell weird stories of the dead	S2
While fresh performers to the ring are led	S2
The sacred nature of the dance is lost	T2
War is their cry red war at any cost	U2
Insane for blood they wait for no command	E
But plunge marauding through the frightened land	E
Their demon hearts on devils' pleasures bent	V2
For each new foe surprised new torturing deaths invent	V2
	-
XVIII	Y
	-
Staked to the earth one helpless creature lies	B2
Flames at his feet and splinters in his eyes	B2
Another groans with coals upon his breast	J
While 'round the pyre the Indians dance and jest	J
A crying child is brained upon a tree	B2
The swooning mother saved from death to be	B2
The slave and plaything of a filthy knave	Y
Whose sins would startle hell whose clay defile a grave	Y
	-
XIX	B2
	-
Their cause was right their methods all were wrong	N2
Pity and censure both to them belong	N2
Their woes were many but their crimes were more	F
The soulless Satan holds not in his store	F
Such awful tortures as the Indians' wrath	W2
Keeps for the hapless victim in his path	W2
And if the last lone remnants of that race	B2
Were by the white man swept from off the earth's fair face	B2
	-
XX	B2
	-
Were every red man slaughtered in a day	R
Still would that sacrifice but poorly pay	R
For one insulted woman captive's woes	B2
	-
Again great Custer in his strength arose	B2
More daring more intrepid than of old	A2
The passing years had touched and turned to gold	A2
The ever widening aureole of fame	V
That shone upon his brow and glorified his name	V
	-
XXI	B2
	-
Wise men make laws then turn their eyes away	R
While fools and knaves ignore them day by day	R
And unmolested fools and knaves at length	X2
Induce long wars which sap a country's strength	X2
The sloth of leaders ruling but in name	V
Has dragged full many a nation down to shame	V
A word unspoken by the rightful lips	B2
Has dyed the land with blood and blocked the sea with ships	B2
	-
XXII	B2
	-
The word withheld wh	R